Tertiary Teaching Online Conference

Can real-time feedback transform student learning in clinical education? This session showcases the Online Real-Time Assessment System (ORAS), an innovative digital assessment tool developed within CQUniversity’s Bachelor of Oral Health program to support workplace-based learning. Drawing on student feedback and evaluation data, the presentation explores how real-time, criterion-aligned assessment enhances feedback quality, promotes reflection, and supports fair and transparent assessment practices during clinical placements. Attendees will gain insights into the benefits and challenges of implementing digital assessment systems and discover practical strategies for strengthening feedback, reflective learning, and student development in health professions education and other practice-based disciplines.

What does it take for students to truly belong in a profession? This presentation showcases an innovative approach to Home Economics teacher education that embeds collaboration, inclusion and belonging across curriculum, assessment and professional engagement. Drawing on authentic learning, design-brief pedagogy and strong partnerships with schools, industry and professional communities, the session demonstrates how students develop confidence, practical capability and professional identity. Attendees will explore strategies for supporting diverse learners, connecting disciplinary purpose to real-world contexts, and creating learning environments where future teachers see themselves as valued contributors to the Home Economics profession and its future.

How can Generative AI do more than save time—and instead transform how students learn? This session explores an evolving approach to integrating GenAI into undergraduate science education, using it to create multimodal teaching resources, adaptive explanations, and student-centred learning experiences across diverse cohorts. Rather than replacing educator expertise, GenAI is leveraged to enhance accessibility, engagement, and the communication of complex concepts. Drawing on student feedback and iterative refinement, the presentation offers practical insights into a responsive, evidence-informed approach to educational innovation. Attendees will gain fresh perspectives on how GenAI can shape teaching practice and enrich student learning in higher education.

Generative AI is transforming how students learn, engage with assessment, and develop disciplinary understanding. In response, CHEM11042 Fundamentals of Chemistry was redesigned to harness the potential of GenAI while maintaining academic integrity and deep learning. This session showcases an evidence-informed approach to assessment redesign, Moodle course enhancement, and AI-supported learning resource development for a large, multidisciplinary first-year cohort. Attendees will explore practical strategies for scaffolding AI-assisted learning, promoting critical thinking and chemical reasoning, and creating more accessible, engaging learning experiences. The approach offers a scalable model for integrating GenAI to improve learning quality, equity, and student success.

Wondering whether awards, grants and fellowships are worth the effort? This session explores how these opportunities can enhance your professional profile, expand your networks, build leadership capability, and support career progression. Learn what evidence evaluators look for and how to identify, collect and showcase your impact with confidence.

Online learning has become a dominant mode of delivery in higher education, valued for its flexibility and capacity to widen participation among diverse student cohorts. As this mode becomes embedded, however, less attention has been paid to the relational loss of face-to-face teaching, or its impact on reshaping educator identity and practice. In particular, the effects of poor student engagement—evidenced through low or absent attendance and minimal participation—remain under-explored.

What happens when Generative AI becomes an active partner in the learning process? This session introduces the Cognitive Learning Studio, an innovative GenAI-enabled platform designed to support student learning through guided interaction, feedback, and co-creation. Drawing on posthuman perspectives, the presentation explores how learning emerges through relationships between students, technologies, and educational contexts rather than within individuals alone. Attendees will experience the platform’s key features, examine student feedback, and discover how GenAI can scaffold thinking, foster agency, and support deeper engagement. Combining theory, practice, and future directions, this session offers fresh insights into designing meaningful, ethical, and responsive learning experiences in the age of AI.

As generative AI becomes increasingly embedded in higher education, an important question remains: how can chatbots support learning in ways that are effective, ethical, and equitable? This session presents findings from a mixed-methods study examining student experiences with AI-powered chatbots, combining survey data and system analytics to explore patterns of use, perceived learning value, barriers, and overall user experience. Participants will gain insights into how students engage with chatbots, including significant after-hours use, and what drives positive learning outcomes. The presentation shares practical recommendations for human-centred design, AI literacy, academic integrity, and implementation strategies that help chatbots complement—rather than replace—human teaching and support diverse student cohorts.

What happens when students use game design to tackle real-world challenges? This session showcases an innovative curriculum that positions game development as a vehicle for social impact, interdisciplinary collaboration, and graduate capability development. Through authentic projects focused on issues such as mental health, sustainability, accessibility, and poverty, students work in multidisciplinary teams to create games that matter. Attendees will discover how industry-inspired practice, experiential learning, authentic assessment, online communities of practice, and the ethical use of Generative AI combine to foster creativity, collaboration, and professional growth. While grounded in game development education, the principles offer a transferable framework for designing purpose-driven learning experiences that prepare students to thrive in an AI-enabled future.

Starting university can be overwhelming, particularly for students entering higher education through non-traditional pathways or with limited familiarity with academic systems and expectations. This session introduces Start Smart, a practical, student-centred resource developed through the Be Ready equity initiative to support students from their very first login. Embedded on institution-provided laptops, Start Smart offers a guided pathway through essential digital tools, study practices, support services, and higher education terminology. Grounded in transition pedagogy and cognitive load theory, the initiative reduces complexity and makes key information accessible when students need it most. Attendees will gain insights into designing structured, low-barrier transition resources that foster confidence, engagement, and a stronger sense of belonging from the outset of the student journey.

How do we move students from understanding sustainability challenges to designing meaningful solutions? This session showcases the design and first delivery of SCIE28003: Sustainability Issues and Solutions, a core unit in the Master of Sustainable Development that uses a Theory of Change framework to connect systems thinking with real-world action. Through authentic, practice-based assessments, students analyse complex sustainability issues, identify leverage points, and develop evidence-informed pathways for change. Attendees will explore how Theory of Change provides a coherent structure for curriculum and assessment design, while also gaining insights into student engagement, mixed-mode delivery, academic integrity, and AI use. The session offers a practical model for preparing students to tackle sustainability challenges with confidence, creativity, and purpose.

How can educators ensure assessment truly reflects what students know and can do? This session shares the redesign of assessment in a Master of Laboratory Medicine unit, where unsupervised online quizzes were replaced with a structured viva voce assessment for a cohort of 170 students across three campuses. Attendees will gain insights into the rationale for the change, including concerns around academic integrity, AI-assisted responses, and the limitations of online quizzes in measuring student understanding. The presentation explores the practical challenges of implementing large-scale oral assessment, strategies for ensuring fairness and consistency, and lessons learned from the first iteration. It offers a practical case study in authentic assessment design that balances rigour, equity, and meaningful feedback in the AI era.

Join this practical workshop to explore easy, practical and sustainable approaches to implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) using the Plus-One strategy.
UDL is a framework for designing inclusive and flexible learning environments that support diverse student needs while maintaining academic standards. It encourages the use of multiple ways for students to engage with learning (the why), access information (the what), and demonstrate their understanding (the how).
The Plus-One approach offers a simple way to apply UDL principles without redesigning an entire course. Rather than making extensive changes, educators identify one area where students commonly experience difficulty and introduce one additional option to support learning, engagement, or knowledge demonstration. This small, targeted change can improve accessibility and enhance the learning experience for a wider range of students.

Turn generic AI output into teaching gold. In this hands-on workshop, discover the CLEAR framework for prompt engineering and watch a throwaway prompt become a polished, AQF-aligned case study in minutes. You'll build your own contextualised learning resource live, using CQU's closed-loop AI tools, and walk away with a reusable template for every unit you design next. No AI experience required, just curiosity and a laptop.

How can students move beyond discussing ethics to actively exploring and creating solutions to complex business challenges? This session showcases an innovative approach to teaching Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) in a Master of Management course. Using hands-on model building and storytelling, students become co-creators of knowledge as they examine ethical dilemmas, stakeholder perspectives, and sustainable business practices. The approach fosters critical thinking, collaboration, reflection, and meaningful dialogue in a psychologically safe and inclusive environment. Attendees will discover how experiential, student-partnered learning can transform engagement with business ethics and sustainability, helping students connect theory to practice while developing the confidence and skills needed to navigate real-world challenges.

As Generative AI continues to reshape higher education, how can educators move beyond policies and tools to meaningfully engage students in the conversation? This session explores how academics in Education and the Arts created opportunities for open, honest discussions about AI and its impact on learning, assessment, and future professional practice. Grounded in Students as Partners principles, these conversations invited students to share their questions, experiences, concerns, and aspirations, fostering trust, transparency, and critical AI literacy. Attendees will gain practical strategies for creating psychologically safe spaces, navigating uncertainty, and engaging students as active contributors to discussions about emerging technologies. The session argues that meaningful AI integration begins not with technology itself, but with dialogue that empowers students to shape the future of learning alongside their educators.

This 90-minute hands-on workshop applies CQUniversity's Guided / Assured Assessment model. Three security tiers, two decision questions, and the SAGE guided and assurance lanes. The first half is an overview of the new model and three step decision matrix; the second is participants doing the same three moves on their own task.
Bring: one of your own assessment tasks in copyable text form and a GenAI tool you are already logged into. Fallback cases are provided. No student names, student work or unpublished third-party material is to be entered into any GenAI tool during the session

What can the world’s oldest continuous knowledge traditions teach us about learning, creativity, and innovation today? Join this thought-provoking session as we explore Indigenous Australian epistemology through remarkable examples such as the Budj Bim aquaculture systems, the engineering of the boomerang, and the navigational intelligence of Songlines. By bringing Indigenous ways of knowing into conversation with constructivist learning theory and Tyson Yunkaporta’s 8 Ways of Learning, this presentation reveals powerful connections between ancient wisdom and contemporary education. Participants will gain fresh perspectives on how knowledge is created, shared, and sustained, along with practical insights for culturally responsive teaching and curriculum design.

Peer connections are central to student success, building confidence, normalising challenges, providing academic support, and fostering a sense of belonging. Yet for online students, these connections rarely emerge without intentional educator action. Drawing on interviews with 21 undergraduate students who experienced both on-campus and online study, this session explores the educator practices that create equivalent opportunities for meaningful peer connection across study modes. Participants will be introduced to a student-informed framework of effective practices that can be adapted across disciplines and contexts. The key message is simple but powerful: learning communities are built through peer connections, and educators are the connectors.

What does it take to create a genuine sense of belonging for LGBTQIA+ students in higher education? In this award-winning session, discover how CQUniversity’s Ally Program is transforming inclusion from aspiration to action. Drawing on trauma-informed pedagogy, borderlands theory, and educator positionality, the program creates safe spaces for meaningful dialogue, empathy-building, and allyship development. Participants will explore practical, evidence-based strategies for fostering inclusive learning environments and strengthening student belonging. With over 340 active Allies and demonstrated impacts on knowledge, confidence, and inclusive practice, this session offers valuable insights for anyone committed to building more welcoming and supportive educational communities.

Teaching in highly internationalised classrooms brings unique opportunities—and challenges. Drawing on five years of coordinating a disaster management unit within CQUniversity’s Master of Public Health program, this session explores practical approaches to supporting student success in diverse intercultural learning environments. Attendees will gain insights into the complexities of teaching students from a wide range of cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds, particularly in specialised disciplines. Focusing on experience, skills, and ethics, the presentation highlights common barriers to engagement and learning, alongside evidence-informed strategies that foster inclusion, participation, and academic success in globally diverse higher education classrooms.

How can universities maintain rigorous written assessment in a world increasingly shaped by generative AI? This thought-provoking session explores practical strategies for balancing academic integrity, professional accreditation requirements, and meaningful AI integration in higher education. Drawing on research and practice in Psychology, the presentation examines when AI use supports learning, why students engage with AI differently, and how institutions can better communicate the risks of overreliance on these tools. Attendees will gain fresh insights into student-AI interactions, emerging research on AI trust and anthropomorphism, and transferable approaches for designing assessments that preserve critical thinking and academic standards in an AI-enabled future.

What if the key to HDR success was not more assessment, but better support? This session explores CQUniversity’s innovative redesign of Confirmation of Candidature preparation, shifting away from graded coursework toward a flexible, feedback-centred model that prioritises learning, autonomy, and wellbeing. Designed for a diverse cohort balancing research alongside work, family, and other commitments, the approach combines self-paced learning, developmental feedback, and collaborative supervisor engagement. Attendees will discover how replacing anxiety-inducing assessment with dialogue, flexibility, and trust has improved milestone completion, strengthened supervisory relationships, and created a more positive research culture, with lessons applicable across higher education.

How well do you really know your students—and how often does their voice shape the learning experiences you create? This engaging session explores practical, research-informed approaches to designing responsive, personalised learning that places students at the centre of the educational process. Drawing on insights from Initial Teacher Education, participants will discover how strategies such as Universal Backward Design, differentiation, and ongoing feedback can strengthen engagement, foster authentic learning partnerships, and support student success. Through real-world examples and actionable ideas, the session demonstrates how listening to students, reflecting on teaching impact, and adapting practice can create more inclusive, meaningful, and empowering learning environments.

Artificial Intelligence is transforming the finance profession—and the way future finance professionals learn. This session explores an innovative teaching approach that positions AI as both an educator’s design partner and a student’s thinking partner in finance education. Attendees will discover how AI can be used to create authentic learning activities, develop real-world case studies, and encourage critical evaluation of AI-generated information. The presentation highlights strategies for fostering student engagement, self-directed learning, and professional judgement while ensuring disciplinary knowledge remains central. Gain practical insights into preparing graduates to work confidently and critically with AI in an increasingly technology-driven financial landscape.

Discover how ThingLink can transform static content into engaging, interactive learning experiences. In this hands-on workshop, explore practical ways to create interactive images, videos, virtual tours, and learning objects that enhance student engagement, support active learning, and make complex concepts more accessible across a range of teaching contexts.

How can professional development remain meaningful when time is in short supply? This session explores CQUniversity’s C.A.F.E. (Creating Adaptable Future-focused Educators) learning series and its innovative “take-away menu” approach to asynchronous professional learning. Designed for busy VET and HE educators, these weekly resources provide practical, just-in-time strategies aligned with the Future Now Learning and Teaching Strategy and the transition to Education 5.0. Attendees will discover how concise, engaging resources support social learning, personalised adaptive learning, authentic learning, and educator praxis while fostering ongoing professional growth. Learn how a flexible, menu-style model can build educator capability, curiosity, and community—one brew at a time.

What if the key to student success lies not in what happens after enrolment, but in how we design the transition before students arrive? This session introduces a research-informed framework that reimagines transition as a continuum of support for Diploma students progressing into Bachelor degrees. Drawing on transition pedagogy and cognitive load theory, the framework combines academic readiness self-assessment, targeted microlearning, and a supported “warm handover” into university services. Attendees will gain practical insights into creating earlier, more coordinated transition experiences that build student confidence, clarify expectations, and strengthen engagement, persistence, and success for pathway students entering higher education.

What does professionalism really mean, and how can students help define it? This session explores an innovative partnership approach that engaged first-year sonography students in co-constructing a shared understanding of professional practice. Using an interactive and highly participatory activity, students generated rich insights into the attributes and behaviours that underpin professionalism within their future profession. Drawing on findings from doctoral research, the presentation demonstrates how student voice can be leveraged to make complex professional expectations more explicit, meaningful, and relevant. Attendees will gain practical ideas for engaging students as partners in learning and for contextualising professionalism across a range of disciplines and practice-based programs.

Teaching mathematics and statistics online can be challenging, particularly when students become focused on memorising procedures rather than developing genuine understanding. This practical session shares strategies from CQUniversity’s online quantitative teaching environment that are designed to build confidence, engagement, and conceptual learning. Attendees will discover how simplified learning materials, scaffolded worked examples, aligned tutorials, clear communication, and regular low-stakes practice can support student success in mathematics and statistics. The presentation will also explore the thoughtful use of AI-supported resources to enhance learning design while maintaining educator expertise at the centre. Gain practical ideas for creating more supportive and effective online learning experiences.

How can reflective practice help educators navigate the complexity of today’s world? This thought-provoking session explores the transformative impact of an international law study tour through the lens of educator reflection and research. Drawing on a multi-year investigation into student learning, the presenters turn their focus inward to examine how the experience reshaped their own teaching, research, and understanding of polycrisis. Attendees will gain insights into the power of reflective competence for responding to challenges such as climate change, postcolonialism, and equity in educational access. Discover how reflection can deepen professional practice, strengthen educator resilience, and support meaningful change in higher education.

International placements do more than transform students—they can fundamentally reshape how educators teach, supervise, and engage with learning. This session explores a long-running multidisciplinary placement program in Thailand that has challenged educators to move beyond traditional supervisory roles and embrace facilitation, partnership, and co-learning in complex intercultural settings. Through practical examples, attendees will discover how working across cultures, disciplines, and resource-constrained environments has fostered new approaches to assessment, mentoring, and curriculum design. The presentation offers valuable insights into developing globally engaged teaching practice, supporting student adaptability, and leveraging international work-integrated learning as a catalyst for educational innovation and growth.

As generative AI continues to reshape higher education, reflective writing faces a critical challenge: how can educators preserve authenticity, self-awareness, and deep learning when AI can generate convincing reflective narratives? This session explores emerging research on the opportunities and risks of GenAI in reflective assessment, highlighting practical, evidence-based strategies for redesigning reflective tasks in AI-enabled learning environments. Attendees will gain insights into approaches such as process-focused assessment, AI-use transparency, reflective dialogue, and Collaborative Reflective Circles. Discover how reflective practice can be reimagined to strengthen critical thinking, academic integrity, and meaningful student engagement in the age of generative AI.